Whose fault? Yours or the church's?

[jay santos]

If you learned something you didn't know previously by watching the South Park Mormon episode?

[Sleeping in EQ]

Yes.

[falafel]

That episode irks me. Not b/c of the church stuff it brings up, that's fair game. I don't care for the "dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb" and "smart smart smart smart smart" commentary.

[Indy Coug]

It's been something like 8 years since I saw that episode, but what was so darn revelatory in it?

[jay santos]

It's been something like 8 years since I saw that episode, but what was so darn revelatory in it?

A blog I was reading today brought this up. I have to admit I didn't know about the head in hat translation method until I saw the episode.

[Slim]

On my mission I found a church history book that included the hat and seer stone stuff so the southpark episode wasn't very revealing.

[Indy Coug]

Why is the head in the hat method any stranger than some breastplate, bows and eyeglasses that you supposedly dug out of the ground?

John Q Mormon: You know, I can accept a guy strapping on some foreign apparatus that no one has ever heard of to translate, but putting your head in a hat? I'm sorry, but I ain't buyin' it.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Why is the head in the hat method any stranger than some breastplate, bows and eyeglasses that you supposedly dug out of the ground?

John Q Mormom: You know, I can accept a guy strapping on some foreign apparatus that no one has ever heard of to translate, but putting your head in a hat? I'm sorry, but I ain't buyin' it.

Indy this might be my favorite post you have ever made. A+, +10, whatever else waup and IPU do.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Why is the head in the hat method any stranger than some breastplate, bows and eyeglasses that you supposedly dug out of the ground?

John Q Mormom: You know, I can accept a guy strapping on some foreign apparatus that no one has ever heard of to translate, but putting your head in a hat? I'm sorry, but I ain't buyin' it.

Because putting a stone in a hat was a common practice for glass lookers, Joseph had been taught the technique by Sally Chase (Joseph's neighbor), and Joseph had found his favorite stone by having its location revealed to him while looking in another stone.

Most of the Book of Mormon wasn't translated with the U & T, but that story seems less enmeshed in folk magic. It probably isn't (autumnal equinox, anyone?), but it seems more palatable to the correlation folks who have pushed it over the stone in hat accounts (which are credible and from faithful sources like Martin Harris, David Whitmer, and members of the Smith family).

Both stories are odd to today's ears, but the stone in hat story is more obviously neck deep in folk magic. The U & T story has ties to the Old Testament (and to the remains of its magic traditions--like Joseph's divination cup--for those who go searching), and is easier to finesse.

[Fiyero]

Now who in their right mind wouldn't absorb every last bit from a show like this?

[Slim]

Why is the head in the hat method any stranger than some breastplate, bows and eyeglasses that you supposedly dug out of the ground?

John Q Mormon: You know, I can accept a guy strapping on some foreign apparatus that no one has ever heard of to translate, but putting your head in a hat? I'm sorry, but I ain't buyin' it.

They both sound like hocus pocus to me. I just think, as was already pointed out, that it is odd that we always hear about the U&T w/ breastplate thing and never the hat thing.

[JohnnyLingo]

Joseph Smith has ice powers!

[UtahDan]

Why is the head in the hat method any stranger than some breastplate, bows and eyeglasses that you supposedly dug out of the ground?

John Q Mormon: You know, I can accept a guy strapping on some foreign apparatus that no one has ever heard of to translate, but putting your head in a hat? I'm sorry, but I ain't buyin' it.

Agree with this completely, which makes it all the stranger to me that we aren't just out in the open about it. I think the difficulty is that all of the official (scriptural or JSH) references are to the breast plate and spectacles but I see no problem with saying it happened more than one way. I think it is patent to anyone who has looked at the issue for more than five minutes that Joseph was the conduit for revelation, not a stone, not glasses affixed to a breast plate, not the POGP scrolls and not even the gold plates.

[UtahDan]

Because putting a stone in a hat was a common practice for glass lookers, Joseph had been taught the technique by Sally Chase (Joseph's neighbor), and Joseph had found his favorite stone by having its location revealed to him while looking in another stone.

Most of the Book of Mormon wasn't translated with the U & T, but that story seems less enmeshed in folk magic. It probably isn't (autumnal equinox, anyone?), but it seems more palatable to the correlation folks who have pushed it over the stone in hat accounts (which are credible and from faithful sources like Martin Harris, David Whitmer, and members of the Smith family).

Both stories are odd to today's ears, but the stone in hat story is more obviously neck deep in folk magic. The U & T story has ties to the Old Testament (and to the remains of its magic traditions--like Joseph's divination cup--for those who go searching), and is easier to finesse.

I should just let the smart people talk and keep quiet.

[ERCougar]

Because putting a stone in a hat was a common practice for glass lookers, Joseph had been taught the technique by Sally Chase (Joseph's neighbor), and Joseph had found his favorite stone by having its location revealed to him while looking in another stone.

Most of the Book of Mormon wasn't translated with the U & T, but that story seems less enmeshed in folk magic. It probably isn't (autumnal equinox, anyone?), but it seems more palatable to the correlation folks who have pushed it over the stone in hat accounts (which are credible and from faithful sources like Martin Harris, David Whitmer, and members of the Smith family).

Both stories are odd to today's ears, but the stone in hat story is more obviously neck deep in folk magic. The U & T story has ties to the Old Testament (and to the remains of its magic traditions--like Joseph's divination cup--for those who go searching), and is easier to finesse.

Sure, there's that.

There's also the little detail that when someone translates something, they're typically looking at the text they're translating...or at least they're in the same room.